Saturday, September 7
I cannot overstate how wonderful it feels to be wearing an outfit made of 100% clean clothes. I was getting really gross there for a while. It's like, sometimes you don't even realize how gross you are until you're not gross anymore.
My locker has been a disaster pretty much every time i've cleared out of a hostel, but today i think takes the cake. I had to basically unpack everything and repack from scratch. Although i did find a few items that i had been afraid i'd lost along the way. As of right now, i don't believe i've lost a single item. Even that lock i said was gone back in Iceland; i had found that before i even left Denmark. Everything's accounted for.
I checked out of the hostel, to make sure that was done on time, but asked if i could stick around in the common room for a while, which they allowed. I needed to get my hostel in order for Berlin.
I wish, i wish, i WISH i had done this a little sooner. There are many options in Berlin, more hostels than i've seen listed for any of the other cities i've been to, and of the eight that are rated above nine stars, all of them are at least a half an hour from the film festival by train. Walking distances range from 45 minutes to two hours. Except for one.
There is one 9+ star hostel that is a fifteen minute walk from the festival. All of the dorms are fully booked, they only have a couple private rooms left. For €130 per night.
No.
The two highest-rated ones both have snippy descriptions that are adamant that "we are NOT a PARTY HOSTEL! We are COZY and QUIET so SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I think it's pretty obvious that i am not partying at these hostels, other than the one time i tried, and failed. But i think i still prefer the atmosphere of a party hostel. I don't mind the noise, in fact i find it comforting. But also, i'm a lot less self-conscious of the noises i'm making myself. No one at a party hostel is going to complain that typing on my keyboard is keeping them awake.
I booked the Sunflower Hostel. In addition to looking a little more, let's say, social, it has another thing the two higher-rated ones don't: 24 hour reception. I'm getting into Berlin at 6:30 in the freaking fucking frigging morning tomorrow, i would love to not have to carry my 40 pound backpack around until 4pm.
That taken care of, i went out to get breakfast. I haven't eaten at the place directly next door to the hostel yet, Zapiecek, so i decided to try that. I got Golasy, a different kind of traditional Polish dumpling with potatoes. I ordered it with mushroom and champignon sauce, which, i thought champignons were mushrooms? "Champignon" is the French word for "mushroom," and everywhere else in eastern Europe that i've ordered a champignon dish from has been mushrooms. Is it a specific kind of mushroom? Kind of like how "naan" is the Arabic word for bread, but when you say "naan" in English it refers to a specific kind of bread. Or like chai tea.
Feel free to put the answer in the comments, if you know, by the way; i don't have internet access at the moment so i can't look it up and i will definitely forget by the time i'm copy/pasting this into the blog.
As i was eating, i realized that i'd intended to ask reception if they could hold onto my bag for the day. My train to Berlin wasn't until 10:25pm, that's a long day to haul this sack of bricks around.
I guess it was fortunate that i'd done that, though, because i also suddenly realized that my phone's memory was almost full, so since i had the bag, i was able to dump my photos & videos onto my laptop while i ate.
Returning to the hostel, they did allow me to store my bag in the luggage room. The clerk led me down a flight of stairs on the left of the reception/bar room, which i hadn't even noticed before, which have a huge sign with an arrow reading "COMMON ROOM." I didn't even know this was here. I had been referring to the kitchen and patio as the common room.
Alright, where am i going today? What am i doing?
I thought about the Marie Curie museum, which is just a little north of the hostel, but first things first, i need a post office. The clerk told me there was one in Market Square, with the mermaid. I didn't fully understand her directions, so i looked it up on Maps, and this turned out to be false; two of them show up on Market Square. The first turned out to just be a dropbox, and i don't have stamps. The second...did not exist? I went to the address, and it was a coffee shop.
Dozens of other "post offices" were dotting the map, but they were all labeled Poczta Polska, Polish Post, the same as the drop box had been. I couldn't trust any of these. I was gonna have to go for the Main Post Office, which was two kilometers away.
But, it was close to the Chopin museum! So i started off in that direction.
I passed the Mermaid again, then the bear...good thing i visited these monuments yesterday, they were swamped today. Saturday crowds, i guess. The churches were too. I passed through the other square, with the bear mascot, who was out doing their thing again. This time i noticed some kind of a donation box around their neck. Past the Presidential Palace, past the turn for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier...
Pretty soon, i was out of Old Town entirely, and seeing Warsaw as a full, modern city.
The Post Office was confusing. I walked in, and there was no one at the reception desk. It seemed to me that the Post Office was on the fifth floor, up an elevator that had red Xs on the gates in front of it, and a card reader. Between them was a hallway, but it was labeled for a bank, and all i could see down it was security guards.
I went outside and checked the sign again. I checked the map again. There's no way. If this isn't a full-service post office, then there isn't one in Warsaw.
I went back in and headed down that hallway. Immediately after passing through the doorway, i saw another sign for the bank, which pointed off to the right. So i continued straight. And then i was in what was very obviously a post office.
It took me thirty-five minutes to get through the queue, but i was happy to have that business completed.
Alright, now what? I haven't been this far south, what's on the Atlas?
Oh, there's a single palm tree in the middle of Charles de Gaulle Memorial Roundabout? Sure, we'll go see that.
There it is. It's a palm tree. Reminds me of my second home.
What's next? Oh, the Gallery of Medieval Art! That's one i had been kind of excited about, but it seemed so far away before.
Maybe i was kind of dragging my feet on the Chopin and Curie museums. I'm not not interested, but also, i don't know how long my attention span in either of those would be.
This whole time i had been misreading that headline, i thought it was a whole museum of just medieval art, but it's not. It's just one gallery in the Polish National Museum. I ended up spending most of my time in that museum today.
The medieval art exhibit is primarily focused on Northern European art from the 14th-16th centuries, and is described as "nearly exclusively composed of items of an ecclesiastical nature."
It's a whole lot of Jesus.
More specifically, it's a whole lot of gruesome, explicitly detailed depictions of Jesus dying or dead on the cross. The stigmata are lovingly rendered. There's one where Jesus is fingering the festering spear wound in his side, and it is...vivid.
All of the pieces are intricate beyond the scope of comprehension. Many of them are three-dimensional wood carvings which served as altar pieces in medieval churches, and the work is detailed to the point of near-realism. On the small scale these exist at, it's unfathomable the amount of work that went into these. They're breathtaking.
Outside of the medieval exhibit, i walked through a collection showing Polish design since the late-1800s, including furniture, appliances, and toys. The way it was set up and lit kind of made me feel like i was walking through an Ikea.
One of the main draws of the museum is a floor-to-ceiling, 32-foot-wide piece called the Battle of Grunwald, depicting the 1410 military engagement of the same name.
I was standing near the Battle of Grunwald, checking the diagram identifying all the key players, when i thought maybe i should sit down. There are plenty of benches available in the room for easy viewing. I turned around, and with my back to the Battle, saw Boo Boo The Fool across the room.
Holy shit! Behold! A meme!
Didn't know that was gonna be in here.
The painting is actually called "Stańczyk During a Ball at the Court of Queen Bona in the Face of the Loss of Smolensk," by Polish painter Jan Matejko, finished in 1862. It depicts the famous 15th-16th century court jester, Stańczyk. Allegedly, he remains an important figure in Polish culture, embodying "satire to criticize social problems while also offering wisdom to the common people," according to Wikipedia.
I took my time going through the rest of the museum, most of which is dedicated to exhibits on "The Old Masters," including paintings, sculptures, tapestries, clothing, furniture, and more.
The Polish Military Museum is supposed to be right next to the National Museum, so i thought i'd just give that a quick look, since i was here. I wasn't super interested in the museum, but there should be many decommissioned vehicles, like tanks and fighter jets, on the grounds, which are free to walk about.
The gate was closed, with a sign reading that the museum has moved, and as such the grounds are no longer available to the public. There was definitely a row of war planes behind the fence, but i couldn't see anything else. And so i submitted my second correction to Atlas Obscura.
You know what's cooler than a military museum, though? The Museum of Neon.
Neon became popular in Poland during the Soviet occupation, but after Stalin's death. Under Kruschev, freedom of expression was somewhat easier, and neon signs were gaining popularity in the west. The museum points out several times that "Communist Advertising" may seem like an oxymoron, but the neon signs quickly became a way for shopkeeps to set their businesses apart from all the rest.
After the fall of the USSR, neon went out of style, with many seeing it as a reminder of the Soviet era. Most of the neon signs across Poland and the Baltic States were destroyed, but this museum has set about acquiring, restoring, and displaying as many of them as they can.
There's even a neon depiction of the Mermaid of Warsaw!
I had wanted to get to Galeria Forty / Forty yet, a hidden art gallery inside an abandoned fortress. It's supposed to challenge the idea of what an "art gallery" even is. It is maintained by the Outdoor Art Foundation, and artists are invited to contribute to the gallery, but given the nature of its presentation, graffiti and vandalism occurs inside regularly. This is part of the appeal; a mix of "official" and "unofficial" art, layered on top of each other, which keeps the gallery constantly changing. Just like organic street art.
It was an hour and a half by transit from the Neon Museum, in the opposite direction of the Oki Doki Hostel, where my bag was still being kept. It was 6pm, my train was at 10:25. That timeframe was not going to work.
Instead, i jumped on a tram back to the hostel. As i disembarked, i realized that i was directly below the observation area where the bear mascot lived, and i'd just seen the hedge maze that i'd noticed from the Dung Hill Lookout yesterday.
Maybe...i'll go check out that hedge maze?
It turned out not to be a maze at all, but a public park in front of the Royal Castle of Warsaw. It has twenty foot tall hedges, yes, and there are fountains and benches and statues concealed within, but it's no maze; you can just pass right through it.
In the center of the park are several fountains, and a large yard, where children were playing. The whole park was pretty busy.
Walking back to the hostel from here took me past Dung Hill, but from the bottom this time, so i could look up at the observation deck where i'd stood yesterday.
By this point, it seemed reasonable that the only thing left i could do in Warsaw was grab my bag, head back to the train station, get some food, and work on my log until the train arrived.
I got very confused with the trams on the way to Warsaw Central Station. From where i was jumping on the tram, i was originally on the correct side of the station, but took another look at the map and somehow convinced myself i was wrong, so i went to the other side, got on the first tram that came through, and went the wrong way. Fortunately i realized it quickly, got off at the next stop, and went the right way. Like plugging in a USB correctly on the third try. See? This is why you leave extra time for travel, young Trevor. Should've learned this lesson much earlier in life.
As i arrived downtown, i realized that i'd spent all of my Warsaw time in Old Town. There's obviously a lot to do in Old Town, so i shouldn't regret it, but now that i was seeing the actual, modern city of Warsaw again, i kind of did. I should have gotten a good mix of the old and the new, i probably missed out on some really cool stuff.
Warsaw seems really nice.
There were several events happening in the squares near the train station. There was a big event with a stage and a movie screen projecting a live view of the festivities, where people were dancing a choreographed routine. Across from that, there was another screen with something else going on. I followed some other music to a group of fire dancers who had set up in part of the central park. I watched all of these for a bit, before finally searching for some food.
I walked about a block out of the way to get to Radio Cafe, where i ordered latkes with smoked salmon. Latkes are another type of Polish potato pancake, different from what i had eaten yesterday, but also wonderful. The salmon went really well with them.
An older couple from Philadelphia was sitting next to me. They are also doing a bit of train travel, though not as much as me. We had a good chat for a bit about dogs, Europe, and such. Amanda came up. We finished our meals at about the same time, and got up to go our separate ways. I was just starting to walk away when the husband flagged me down, took me aside, and told me about someone close to him that had died several years ago, and that a friend prayed with him about it, and he felt like he had touched heaven in that moment.
Sigh.
I don't know, man. I'm glad you had a spiritual experience.
At the corner, there was a big, kitschy neon sign reading, "All the things that could happen next."
This is the kind of kitsch that i like.
There's certainly a lot that will be happening next.
The train station was not particularly busy at 9pm. Most of the businesses had closed, but there was a French boulangerie that was still serving pastries, and i was feeling dessert-y, so i grabbed one, and headed down to my platform to wait.
I got through about two pages of this log before the train arrived. It was running a little late. That's never comforting when you have a connection to make at 4am in a much smaller station.
Once aboard, i prioritized getting some sleep over writing the log.
Yeah, that worked.
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